Nature and architecture: Le Tronc Creux by Bruit du Frigo

Getting away from the daily routine and sticking close to your own city is an inexpensive holiday alternative with low environmental impact. French practice Bruit du Frigo has designed the Le Tronc Creux shelter that accommodates hikers from the trails around the city.



“Why go further and further? “See the good that lies right here?” Goethe’s poem is given new meaning thanks to the initiative financed by the urban community of Bordeaux or CUB (communauté urbaine de bordeaux), grouping together 28 municipalities in the capital of the Gironde department.





The CUB has rolled out a project that includes a hiking trail right around the city, so residents can reconnect to their own territory. The trail links parks, forests, and wastelands and its is dotted with small shelters, where hikers can stay for free (reservations required) to complete their hiking experience.





French practice Bruit du Frigo, which calls itself a hybrid urban planning, creative collective and popular education firm, together with Zebra3/Buy-sellf, created the urban periphery shelter dubbed “Le Tronc Creux”. This all-wood building looks a bit like a hollow tree trunk (as its French name suggests), and stands in clearing in the Le Bourgailh eco-site in Pessac. No power or water, but the structure can accommodate nine people in close contact with nature. The aim is to offer a zero-mile holiday opportunity – making it intrinsically sustainable.

Le Tronc Creux
2013 in Pessac (33) - http://www.bourgailh-pessac.fr
Design: Bruit du Frigo, http://bruitdufrigo.com
Construction: Zebra3 / Buy-sellf
Financed by CUB (Communauté Urbaine de Bordeaux)
Photos: Courtesy of Bruit du Frigo